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Tim Allen

The Allen File

A native of the Detroit area, Tim Allen has spent his life tinkering with cars — whether it was in his high school shop class or as the enthusiastic-but-misguided Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor on his hit 1990s sitcom “Home Improvement.”

With his amazing success — in November 1994, Allen starred in the highest-rated sitcom, the No. 1 movie (“The Santa Clause”) and had the best-selling book (“Don’t Stand Too Close To A Naked Man”) — Allen got the chance to live out his dreams. He teamed with Steve Saleen to race 500-hp Ford Mustangs in SCCA races.

Of course, Allen is also known as the voice of Buzz Lightyear from the “Toy Story” movies and he is currently the voice of Chevrolet commercials.

Allen returned to primetime TV this year with the sitcom “Last Man Standing.” It airs Tuesday nights on ABC. In January, Allen invited Cup champ Tony Stewart to guest-star on an episode.

… Being back on the air

“I’m grateful. I think about my old friend Michael Andretti — it’s hard to be the old champion and reboot. It’s tough to go around the second time in any business.”

… His racing career

“I loved it. The most magical moments of my life came on the track. I was never a pro — just didn’t have enough time to practice. Like acting, it’s not as easy as it looks. Mario and Michael Andretti were huge helps. They were in my pits at Elkhart Lake.”

… Having Tony Stewart on the show

“He was great. He went to every rehearsal with the script in his hand. His clumsiness — as an amateur — didn’t show because he paid attention. Now, he couldn’t do ‘MacBeth’ but hey, I followed Rusty Wallace around a track once — right on his bumper — and he said I didn’t do too bad either. But I couldn’t actually race any of these guys. I just told Tony to stick with me and answer questions like I was really asking them to him.”

… Current car projects

“I’m working on too many cars. I bought a ’64 Chevelle two years ago. It has a punched-out 454, you smell like a gas pump when you get out of it.

“I’m also tweaking out a Cadillac CTS-V wagon. It’s probably the fastest thing I own. The performance cars they’re building today are supercars. It’s absurd how fast they are. I could do what I used to do in my race car at Willow Springs (Calif.) in one of these street cars today — on street tires. I don’t know what they’d do with racing slicks. It’s startling.”

… The best all-around car

“Literally, there’s nothing better than a minivan. It does everything well but it lacks two things: performance and the cool factor. It carries people and luggage well. It’s comfortable. But you look like a frickin’ geek in it.

“In the ’90s, Renault made one [the Espace F1] — with a carbon-fiber Formula 1 chassis with a mid-engine. That thing was good. And Steve Saleen and I took a Ford Aerostar, dropped it, put in a bigger motor, put on Brembo brakes but you still look like a geek.

“If I had the right engine, drivetrain, transmission, I could probably get one that’s cool. Really go after it. All-wheel drive, race seats up front. You could make a hot-looking minivan, but it would still be a minivan.”

… Still doing stand-up

“I still do the ‘grunting’ but I think people are looking for me to do something else. The new TV show is just starting to hit. It’s sad and wonderful that the new show’s starting to take over. It’s like getting a new dog. You forget the old dog.”

… Carrying a lot of phones

“I like testing phones. It’s embarrassing. I have four phones on my desk right now. I try each one. It’s like building a hot rod or tour buses. It’s all a compromise. It looks like I have a problem – and I’m not saying I don’t – but it’s fun. I just want a phone that does its job the best. Doesn’t have to be the coolest-looking.”

Train lead singer Pat Monahan should be familiar to NASCAR fans. He sang the national anthem for the 54th running of the Daytona 500 last February, and the entire band performed hits from its most recent album “California 37” at Daytona in July.

Jeff Foxworthy was attending college in his hometown of Atlanta when a friend urged him to give stand-up comedy a try. Foxworthy did and went on to become a comedic powerhouse with his “You might be a redneck” one-liners and the popular Blue Collar Comedy franchise.

David, who first picked up a guitar at age 12 and formed his first band at 15, breezed through the early rounds and went on to win the seventh season of the show in 2008 — separating himself from the pack with notable performances of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

Ernie Brown Jr. – a.k.a. Turtleman – has been diving into Kentucky’s murkiest ponds in search of snapping turtles for more than three decades.
Now, Brown captures everything from boar, snakes, raccoons and wild coyotes with a team that includes banjo-toting sidekick Neal James.

In the 20 years since his hit song “Ice, Ice Baby” became the first hip-hop song to top Billboard charts, Vanilla Ice has weathered the ups and downs of his fame. Today, the 44-year-old is more than just a faded pop star. He still records and performs his music but he’s also the face of a growing home improvement franchise on the DIY Network. His show “The Vanilla Ice Project” follows him on radical renovations and a second series “Ice My House” allows him to outfit contest winner’s homes with outlandish technology and accessories.

Two years ago, Lauren Alaina was balancing school and a job at Cici’s Pizza – all while she nursed her dream of singing for a living. Enter: “American Idol.”
The precocious and charmingly Southern chanteuse wowed the show’s judges and audiences on her way to a runnerup finish in the tenth season of the show.

Born on Chicago’s South Side, Neil Flynn began acting while studying speech at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
Early in his career, he appeared in plays at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and performed with the Second City Comedy Troupe.
Flynn got his big break on the sitcom “Scrubs” in 2001. Although he auditioned for the role of Dr. Perry Cox, Flynn was cast as The Janitor and spent eight seasons tormenting Dr. John Dorian, played by Zach Braff.

Richard Hammond loves his main job. A self-professed car nut, he’s been fortunate enough to drive everything from a Lamborghini Aventador to a Renault Formula 1 car as co-host of BBC’s “Top Gear” — the world’s most popular automobile show.

Gary Sinise discovered acting while in high school and soon after co-founded Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the mid-1970s. After gaining notoriety for producing and acting in Steppenwolf productions, Sinise directed and starred alongside Steppenwolf castmate John Malkovich in “Of Mice and Men” in 1992.

Twin brothers Randy and Jason Sklar (Jason wears glasses) have built a career at the nexus of comedy and sports. As the stars of the now-defunct ESPN Classic show “Cheap Seats,” fill-in hosts on “The Jim Rome Show” and now the hosts of their weekly podcast “Sklarbro Country,” the Sklar brothers never have a hard time finding humor in the often-quirky sports world.

A native of small-town Poyen, Ark., Justin Moore grew up singing in his church choir but didn’t start performing country music until he was 18. “I always knew I could sing. And growing up in a town of 300 people, you were the weird one if you could sing on-key,” the 27-year-old singer says. “It was one of those things that once I started, I just knew that was what I wanted to do.”

As executive producer and host of “Man v. Food Nation” on Travel Channel, Adam Richman indulges in two of his favorite pastimes: eating and performing. A native of New York City, Richman earned his master’s in fine arts from Yale University’s School of Drama. But it was during his undergraduate days at Emory University in Atlanta when he started writing a food journal.

Composed of siblings Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry, The Band Perry has exploded on the country music scene with its self-titled debut album and smash single, “If I Die Young.” As children, the Perrys were weaned on rock and country music — claiming equal allegiance to the Rolling Stones and Loretta Lynn. But though the three have performed their entire lives they didn’t start playing together until 2005.

As host of SPEED’s “The Car Show,” Adam Carolla has many NASCAR fans’ dream job: He gets paid to drive and talk about cars. But the new show is one of many vehicles for the voluble Carolla’s famously sarcastic take on the world. After a long career in radio and TV Carolla was named as Howard Stern’s replacement after the shock jock switched to satellite.

You likely know Jason Lee best from his lead role in “My Name is Earl,” but for the last two years, the versatile actor has starred in TNT’s “Memphis Beat.” Lee plays police detective Dwight Hendricks, who considers himself the keeper of Memphis. His character inherited a passion for music and an instinct for solving crimes from his father, an officer who was killed in the line of duty when Dwight was a young boy.